IEEE 802.11 standards are designed as network protocols that allow for sharing of medium. However, an entity may deploy network devices, such as access points (APs), in high density to support higher capacity. On the other hand, the receive sensitivity (i.e., the ability of the radios to receive signals from farther away sources) and transmit capabilities of radios have increased with the advancement of technologies. Hence, in a typical wireless deployment, an AP can receive signals from sources located far away from the AP, which may result in the AP spending time receiving unnecessary signals which could otherwise be used to communicate with its clients.
Moreover, as per the Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) protocol, when an AP receives a decodable IEEE 802.11 standard compliant wireless signal, albeit from a faraway source, the AP will refrain from transmitting any signals until the reception is complete. However, because the received signal is transmitted by a faraway source, the AP may not need to receive that signal and instead could use that time to communicate with a device closer to the AP.
Also, when a client device connects to an AP in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the client device may have a preference to stay connected with the same AP. Therefore, when such client device moves from one physical location nearby to a different physical location faraway, the AP will have to transmit signals at a lower data rate to the client device moving to the faraway physical location. The lowered data rate will negatively impact network performance for other client devices in the WLAN by consuming the radio frequency (RF) medium with very long transmissions.